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Strike: Newport Transporter Bridge is the focus of play The Mark Of A Man

Actor and director Gareth Bale is the founder of Cardiff’s new Ad Hoc Theatre Company. Inspired by Bale’s work with London company The Miniaturists, Ad Hoc will only tackle short plays. Its first double bill is Newport writer Greg Glover’s The Mark Of A Man and Frederick Blanchette’s comedy Matchplay.

What was so good about working for The Miniaturists?

It was professionally done, and for each performance there were three different plays, three different casts, three different directors. If you were in the business, you weren’t only performing to a good audience, you got to meet different directors and actors, which was great.

Why take the idea to Cardiff?

We need something between new writing and a full-blown production, really. Dirty Protest are doing a lot of good work, but they’re exclusively new writing, whereas this can be anything; if an actor or a director wants to put anything on, then so long as it’s between 20 and 40 minutes, we’ll have a look.

It’s light and it moves very quickly, and I think most guys and girls can relate to this situation in a relationship: it’s about a man trying to explain the rules of a sport to his girlfriend. I think a lot of people have been there before. The Mark Of A Man is very different.

Was that a deliberate choice?

That happened by chance, but it is in complete contrast to Matchplay: it’s grittier. It’s about three guys storming the Newport Transporter Bridge during the 1984 miners’ strike.

What are your plans for future Ad Hoc productions?

The Miniaturists happens every month, but I don’t think we could do that at the moment in Cardiff. What I’ll try is another one by the end of the year and see how well it does; maybe do three plays, and try to have a different experience in every play, so it doesn’t become boring